Five Dolls for an August Moon / Blood and Black Lace

FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON (5 BAMBOLE PER LA LUNA D’AGOSTO), 1970, International Media Films, 88 min. Dir. Mario Bava. A clique of the idle rich gathered for a swinging weekend at an island beach house are murdered one by one in this ultra-groovy, Pop Art giallo. Soaked with a glamorously sleazy ambience and an absurd lounge music score by the great Piero Umiliani, FIVE DOLLS emerges as one of the pinnacles of 1970’s Euro-trash cinema!(English dubbed print.)

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (SEI DONNE PER L’ASSASSINO), 1964, 88 min. Dir. Mario Bava. This fiendishly simple story of models at a fashion salon being stalked by a gruesomely imaginative killer is often credited as the film that started the Italian giallo (sexy suspense thriller) craze that mushroomed in the 1960s and 1970s. Bava’s cast of characters is a fascinating catalogue of beautiful but flawed women and the men in their lives – self-seeking neurotics, alcoholics, addicts, lechers and psychotics.